1.1. BACKGROUND
The establishment and continuing management of effective radiation protection and safety programmes are essential components in the control of radiation exposures of workers. The IAEA has developed extensive guidance for managers, radiation protection specialists and employers on the control of occupational exposure. The use of the guidance, together with observance of the relevant State legislation, will ensure that occupational radiation protection is optimized.
However, in many practices, there is a category of exposed workers who are not employees of the organization, who either work for contractors or are self-employed. These workers may not work with ionizing radiation sources themselves, but may be exposed to the sources of ionizing radiation at the facility. Alternatively, they may bring their own sources of radiation into the facility, thus creating an exposure pathway to the employees of the management of the facility as well as themselves. Radiation Protection and Safety of Radiation Sources: International Basic Safety Standards, IAEA Safety Standards Series No. GSR Part 3 (2014) (hereinafter referred to as GSR Part 3) [1]
(paras 3.85–3.87) and Occupational Radiation Protection, IAEA Safety Standards Series No. RS-G-1.1 [2]1 (paras 2.40 and 5.11) give some limited guidance on the procedures to follow when ‘itinerant’ workers are hired to carry out work. It is recognized, however, that further guidance needs to be given to specify where responsibility lies in these situations and the procedures to be followed. This guidance may also be appropriate for some employees on short term assignments with an employer.
The term ‘itinerant’ could be misinterpreted to imply that workers necessarily move from one work location to another in succession, with the workers necessarily taking job assignments that result in annual doses approaching dose limits or the jobs not being desirable for other reasons. In reality, many job assignments for itinerant workers are desirable, require highly trained personnel, result in accumulated doses which are well controlled and allow for longer term assignments at one location.
Alternative terminologies such as ‘transient’, ‘temporary’ or ‘migrant’
workers have similar connotations. ‘Outside’ worker is a term mainly used in Europe, and it is also used differently by the European Union than in this Safety
1 A revision of this publication is in preparation.
Report. A term such as ‘contracted’ workers may be confusing because permanent employees of an organization are sometimes said to be ‘under contract’.
The focus is on the set of workers who regularly carry out job assignments at a work location of an employer other than their own employer. The definition of ‘itinerant’ worker is provided in Section 2.
1.2. OBJECTIVE
This Safety Report addresses the radiation protection issues associated with the use of itinerant workers, and recommends managerial and practical arrangements that need to be in place if good practices are to be followed and radiation doses controlled adequately. The Safety Report focuses on the communication and cooperation among the relevant parties to establish a clear allocation of responsibilities and to ensure the protection and safety of itinerant workers.
The primary responsibility for the protection of workers lies with the management of the operating organization responsible for the facilities and activities that give rise to radiation risks; however, the employer of the worker (as well as the worker) also bear certain responsibilities. This Safety Report is intended to provide practical guidance for managers of itinerant workers, for managers who are responsible for the safety aspects associated with the use of contractors at a facility (with or without a radiation source) and for workers.
This includes those managers directly responsible for radiation protection, such as radiation protection officers (RPOs) and radiation protection managers, and their staff. Equally important target audiences are those managers responsible for production or other aspects of the organization, such as the preparation of contracts. These persons may also be involved in the development and implementation of radiation protection programmes (RPPs) for the workers, both in-house and itinerant workers. This Safety Report is also useful for regulatory bodies in clarifying how the contracting parties comply with regulatory requirements with respect to the use of contractors and itinerant workers, including the identification of situations which may call for interaction between the contracting parties and the regulatory body.
1.3. SCOPE
This Safety Report applies to all sites and facilities (with or without a radiation source) in which itinerant workers are exposed to radiation in the
facilities, operations in the mining and processing of radioactive ores and other raw materials, oil and gas facilities, and well logging and medical radiation facilities (e.g. equipment engineers). Subjects covered include organizational and managerial responsibilities, contractor personnel competence, RPPs and training.
Health care professionals (e.g. radiological medical practitioners and medical radiation technologists) may also meet the definition of itinerant workers, depending on their employment and work location arrangements. Specific guidance applicable to the situation of health care professionals in clinical and pseudo-clinical settings is being developed by the IAEA in a Safety Guide on radiation protection and safety in medical uses of ionizing radiation; therefore, the information concerning those situations in this Safety Report is limited.
The content of this Safety Report focuses on planned exposure situations.
The likelihood that an itinerant worker would be asked to accrue dose in an emergency is small, but this request may be made of adequately trained and briefed workers. Thus, record keeping for such doses is mentioned in this Safety Report. The exposures of itinerant workers engaged in remedial actions are to be controlled for as those for planned exposure situations. For exposure to radon in the remedial action workplace, the above is true when reasonable efforts to control the activity concentration of radon below the reference level established by the regulatory body have not been successful [1].
1.4. STRUCTURE
The definition of itinerant workers and the general issues associated with their use are presented in Section 2. Section 3 considers worker, managerial and organizational responsibilities, and discusses three types of situation that are likely to occur with itinerant workers. Section 4 describes a mechanism for ensuring the competence of itinerant workers, while Section 5 considers the development of appropriate RPPs. Specific issues associated with the use of itinerant workers in the nuclear industry, medicine, and in the mining and raw materials extraction and processing industries are discussed in Section 6.
The mechanisms for the review and maintenance of arrangements for itinerant workers are addressed in Section 7.
Additional practical information, including examples of a checklist for guiding formulation of contractual arrangements for protection and safety, an individual radiation monitoring document (an IRMD, or ‘passbook’), a checklist for assessing the radiation safety performance of industrial radiographers, an example of an outline of a basic radiation protection training course, an individual access form for a nuclear facility and an example for assessing occupational exposure to NORM is given in the appendices.